Thursday, July 31, 2014

Each week we will spotlight a different DPW artist who will give away one of their best paintings.To enter to win Karen's painting, "Cinnamon and Apples" go to Daily Paintworks and click on the link at the top of the page announcing their interview.

From Karen's DPW Gallery page:

I have only been painting in watercolor a short time but have been drawing on and off since a child. Painting in watercolor is such a challenging medium sometimes with a mind of its own. Before one painting is finished I am all ready excited about the next one. I am self taught from studying books, other artists and internet seminars. (click to read more)

Tell us a bit about how you first started painting.

I have been painting in watercolor for three years now after needing a new hobby to fill my time during which is now a chronic illness. I have been drawing and painting in other mediums off and on since a child and did quite a bit of folk art when it was popular. My watercolor I have learned from books, other artists on video and computer seminars. I like Winsor and Newton paints on 140 lb Arches watercolor paper, preferring to use the transparent colors as much as possible.

What mediums and genres have you experimented with? Which ones have "stuck" and which ones have fallen away?
Last year, I added pencil crayon painting to my portfolio when I needed a mental break from watercolor painting. I always go back to my favorite genre watercolor. It is such a challenging medium, sometimes having a mind of it's own.

Enter to win by clicking on the link at the top of the home page announcing Karen's interview.

Which genres and mediums are you looking forward to exploring?

Next, I would like to learn to paint with a looser style, I try too hard to make the painting match the picture. My love for watercolor will always be first but at some point I hope to give oil painting a try after seeing so many wonderful paintings done in this medium.

I take my camera everywhere I go - always looking for the perfect pictures to paint, an old house, run down barns. Neighbors and friends are used to me crawling around their gardens, posing their pets and children. I have a large garden myself, my second love which provides some nice photographs of flowers, birds and little critters for me to study or paint.

I sometimes get lost for hours going over photographs, researching techniques, and communicating with other artists I have befriended on Daily Paintworks when I need inspiration to start another piece. A lovely piece by another artist can be enough to inspire me not to get frustrated during a slump.

How do you keep art "fresh?" What techniques have helped you avoid burnout and keep your work vibrant and engaging?

I prefer the realist approach and love to add detail to my work. I pick my photographs with that in mind. Are there good contrasts in tone, detail and shadows? The more a picture interests me the more excited I get to try to paint it. I love to go back and forth between wet on wet, wet on dry and dry on wet.

I have so much to learn, it is a never ending education of trying new techniques. I now find I pay more attention to everything I see: colors, textures, and shadows - will that make a good painting?

Like other artists, I aspire to make the next painting better than the last and it can be both enjoyable and frustrating at times. The art has taught me patience, relaxation and gives me a sense of excitement in doing something that I enjoy very much, even if not every painting is good, it is about the learning process for me.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Each week we will spotlight a different DPW artist who will give away one of their best paintings.To enter to win Donna's painting, "Red Apple and Daisies" go to Daily Paintworks and click on the link at the top of the page announcing their interview.

From Donna's DPW Gallery page:

​I have always loved to paint, especially with oils. My favorite subjects include: flowers, still lifes, landscapes, and animal portraits. I consider my work contemporary and realistic. I am inspired mostly by the world around me. I hope my paintings convey my love for the colors that surrounds us every day.

Tell us a bit about how you first started painting.

Like most people, I found out early that I had a talent for the visual arts. What lit the spark for me was a TV show by Jon Gnay and his art kits. If you grew up in the late fifties or sixties, you might have seen one of is shows where he demonstrates how to draw. I got one of his kits and away I went. I had drawings all over the place. After that, teachers noticed and I was encourage to try painting with watercolors and acrylics. It was in college where I tried oil paintings. Immediately, I fell in love with the rich color and consistency of the paint.

Did you have any stops and starts in your painting career?

I graduated college with an art education degree and taught thirty-two years as an art teacher in Berlin, Wisconsin, so I am not sure you would say I ever really had any stops in my creativity growth. I will admit that teaching took up a lot of my time. I could only work on my personal paintings during the summer breaks. Now that I am retired, I am trying to paint a little every day or most days. I took a couple of online courses with Dan Edmundson to refresh my skills and that is what motivated me to look into selling my paintings online. I highly recommend his courses to anyone who has an interest in learning how to paint. He is an excellent teacher!

Enter to win by clicking on the link at the top of the home page announcing Donna's interview.

What mediums and genres have you experimented with?

During my college days I had a lot of opportunities to explore different visual arts. Art Education degrees require a very broad, general scope of the visual arts and many classes of learning and teaching techniques. I made weavings, puppets, figure sketches, paintings, jewelry, bronze sculpture, etc. Personally, I knew painting would always be my number one art hobby.

Which ones have "stuck" and which ones have fallen away?

Oil painting stuck as you can see. Watercolor and acrylic painting, I haven't done that for years. Maybe in the future; if I find a good teacher I might be tempted to get back into watercolor. I do like the transparency of watercolor.

Right now, I am trying to learn how to paint faster and use fewer strokes when painting. It is a challenge for me but it helps when working on smaller panels. The fastest I have ever painted a painting was in two days vs. my usual three. I am hoping someday to finish one in a day that I am satisfied with and don't feel a need to go back to it the next day.

Who or what inspires you most?

I am inspired by the beautiful things around me, by the teachers I have known and mostly other artists. When I see a beautiful painting, I want to pick up a brush and join in. When I learn a new technique, I want to try it. When I see a beautiful flower in the sunlight, I want to paint it. When I see master artwork in a museum I want to yell, "ah! How did they do that?!"

I am not a big procrastinator. I am too high strung and nervous for that. It bothers me when I have to stop a painting and step back from it. I can not get it out of my head until I am finished. So maybe I am not a procrastinator, but I do need to put effort into relaxing before I start a painting. My dog Tuck sees to that. Tuck says walk first then paint!

What techniques work to ensure that you make time for your art?

I use to do errands and housework before painting but then there are days I would never get to the fun part, painting. So now I try to start the day relaxing, painting and then do all the lovely stuff like dishes, cooking, cleaning, paying bills, etc. That seems to work most days.

Getting ideas for paintings can sometimes be a little bit of work. I use photos I have taken, or others have. Paint My Photo website is an excellent resource for ideas. I also paint from still lifes I have created. I do not paint outside. I once did and hope to get back into that when my painting speed picks up and the mosquitos calm down.

How do you keep art "fresh?" What techniques have helped you avoid burnout and keep your work vibrant and engaging?

I keep my art fresh by changing the subject matter. I like going back and forth between still lifes and landscapes. Landscapes help me to loosen up and focus on depth in a painting. Still lifes help with the basics, drawing and value.

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Each week we will spotlight a different DPW artist who will give away one of their best paintings.To enter to win Andre's painting, "Summer Cream" go to Daily Paintworks and click on the link at the top of the page announcing their interview.

From Andre's DPW Gallery page:

Born in Quebec, living in Paris. Doing one painting per day (or there about) since October 1st, 2011.

Tell us a bit about how you first started painting.

When I was a teenager, I painted a reproduction of a Swatch watch on the wall of my bedroom (my parents were thankfully very patient). On canvas, I started making reproductions of logos (like Rolling Stones tongue) and after, I did things like the Perrier and Evian logos in a large format.

Did you have any stops and starts in your painting career?

Once I started to do paintings, I did perhaps ten canvases over ten years (evenings and weekends) while I worked as a car painter in the body shop at Mercedes and BMW. I started painting full-time in October 2011.

Enter to win by clicking on the link at the top of the home page announcing Andre's interview.

What mediums and genres have you experimented with?

I started with acrylic, and then moved to oils. I’ve done reproductions, airbrush, street art stencil, and still life, hyperrealist reproductions, and now large-format Parisian cafés. I’ve experimented with some left-handed (non-dominant) paintings as my right handed paintings tend to be very realistic.

I’d like to improve my technique; since I’m self-taught, there are certainly lots of techniques and methods that I have yet to learn.

Who or what inspires you most?

I’m inspired by Hopper, Rod Penner, Keith Haring, Andy Warhol. And as for things to look at, I’m inspired currently by Parisian cafés within walking distance of my apartment, especially when they have good sunlight and a bit of movement.

When I’m stuck on a painting, I’ll often leave it and work on it again the next day. Instead, I’ll take pictures for new paintings, or go buy supplies, or do some designs. I don’t wait more than until the next day to keep get going again.

What techniques work to ensure that you make time for your art?

I work the same hours that I did when I was an employee (9 am to 6 pm). I go to work every day, take the metro, pack a lunch, go to my studio – I approach it as a regular full-time job! The studio is new – I used to paint every day in our living room, and have only been in the studio for about 5 months. Approaching it like it’s my regular full-time job for the past (nearly) 3 years has helped me get representation with a gallery in Paris at Place des Vosges just as of last Friday, so this is really exciting.

And as far as having time, I’ve been lucky in that I have focussed solely on the creation of the art. The management of my website, mailing list, Facebook page, and the communication with the clients has been done (up to now) by my wife. Now that I’ve progressed to having gallery representation, they’ll be doing the sales and marketing work. So me, I get to paint all day long.

I paint exclusively from photos, so I first look for good photographs. Now I am taking all of the photos myself, but before I used to also rely on a combination of my own images as well as creative commons images on Flickr (or with permission from other photographers’ works).

To find a Paris café to paint, I wait for a sunny day, head out with my camera, and just walk the streets looking for the right image (there are over seven thousand cafés in Paris apparently!).

How do you keep art "fresh?" What techniques have helped you avoid burnout and keep your work vibrant and engaging?

I treat it like a full-time, regular job. I work 5 days a week with weekends off. I take vacations. I’m also happiest now that I’m painting exclusively what I want to (thankfully, also what the gallery wants to represent).

Right now I’m learning how to navigate the system of how gallery representation works, as well as figuring out what will sell and at what size (I’m working up to larger and larger canvases).

What makes you happiest about your art?

When I finish a canvas, the satisfaction it gives me when I’ve done a good job of reproducing the photo, getting the colors right, as well as improving on the photo so that the painting is better than the original image.

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Each week we will spotlight a different DPW artist who will give away one of their best paintings.To enter to win Annette's painting, "Watchful Max" go to Daily Paintworks and click on the link at the top of the page announcing their interview.

From Annette's DPW Gallery page:

I am thrilled to be part of Daily Paint Works and around others who have the same passion to be creative daily! As an editorial cartoonist since 1986, mostly dealing in black and white print, I love that I have time now to go back to oils for the first time in years!

Tell us a bit about how you first started painting.

I am mostly self-taught. It started, I believe, in grade school. There, I first realized that many of my schoolmates had no interest in or couldn't draw. At the start of the school year, my class had to set up our classroom in the school basement with no windows, pipes overhead, and artificial lights. There was this big long blank stone wall on the side of this dreary room.

Our teacher, one morning, taped up some local butcher wrap paper all over it and asked if anyone would like to help draw and color a scene of Columbus discovering America. I quickly jerked up my hand while bouncing up out of my seat hoping to be one of the chosen. Everyone laughed. I was only one with my hand up, so the whole wall became mine to do. I drew on this wall everyday for an hour during class.

This, I truly believe, is why I am weak in math and got an A in history that year. So I learned young that drawing did not come naturally to everyone.

Enter to win by clicking on the link at the top of the home page announcing Annette's interview.

Did you have any stops and starts in your painting career? What mediums and genres have you experimented with?

I don't paint all of the time. My daily routine and current job is editorial cartoonist for my local area newspaper. Political cartoons, caricatures; I've been doing freelance work for over 30 years now. My children are all grown and out of the house and I am now trying to impress my grandchildren.

To many to mention who has been inspirational to me over all the years. I am so grateful to all of them, the list is long but not forgotten. The artwork of Carol Marine inspired me to go back to oils. I own most of her instructional videos and demonstrations. I was completely frustrated with oil paints before, but not now.

I love the DPW website, the artists, challenges, the sharing of ideas, thoughts, and frustrations that all the talented members have come to know because of the passion to paint daily. It truly is a passion for me too!

What techniques work to ensure that you make time for your art? How do you generally arrive at ideas for your paintings?

I get inspired to paint daily very easily. One technique I use is keeping my brushes clean and ready to use in a set up area that never gets put away. An inviting area in my home ready to create is all I need to get me going. I love the learning process and making something come alive with just a pencil sketch.

How do you keep art "fresh?" What techniques have helped you avoid burnout and keep your work vibrant and engaging?

I avoid burn out by changing my painting medium or subject from dogs to cats or birds after couple of days outdoors.

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Each week we will spotlight a different DPW artist who will give away one of their best paintings.To enter to win Marla's painting, "A Touch of Blue" go to Daily Paintworks and click on the link at the top of the page announcing their interview.

From Marla's DPW Gallery page:

"I've been a painter my whole life! There is really nothing I'd rather be doing than painting. I marvel at how challenging it can be and how humbling, but every now and again, something really special happens and those are the moments that seem to make me go back for more!"

A prolific painter and teacher, Marla's artwork and workshops have been nationally sought after and represented throughout the country for over 25 years. Contributing to many art publications such as Pastel Journal, she is a signature PSA member and an IAPS Master Circle recipient. Professionally, Marla is well-known for her 100 Variation Series.

Tell us a bit about how you first started painting.

I first started drawing and painting as a little girl. I copied one of those cartoons in a T.V. Guide. My mom saw it and realized that I could draw. From then on she made sure I had “real” art supplies which we found in a kind of kiosk at a local hardware store! I loved drawing animals and started using Conte’ pencils. I kept drawing and painting and eventually applied to art school. I was fortunate to get a great academic art education at Art Center College of Design. I graduated from the illustration program there and worked as an illustrator for about 15 years before beginning to do some landscape painting in between the commercial work. That quickly took off and I had the pleasure of being able to turn down the very deadline driven, laborious illustration work for the far more creative and satisfying work of the landscape.

Enter to win by clicking on the link at the top of the home page announcing Marla's interview.

Did you have any stops and starts in your painting career?

Oh, yes! I had a son who was extremely premature. I spent all my time during the first five or six years taking care of him. He’s twenty-four now and a great person! He has a brother who is twenty-one who is also a great person!

What mediums and genres have you experimented with?

I love to experiment and often have two or three easel set-ups with different media. I think I’ve experimented with everything! I am not a big watercolor person, though I use it for underpainting occasionally. I haven’t done any sculpture, although I’d like to.

I am very inspired by the wonder of the natural world and the divine nature of it. I am also amazed by the artists both contemporary and historical that have stood behind me as I’m working! Dan McCaw, Richard Mckinley, Gerhart Reichter, George Inness, Bonnard, Pissaro, on and on!

What does procrastination look like for you?

Procrastination is my middle name! I love to do it. It’s funny, although I have all the wonderful support and motivation that an artist could possibly hope for, I sometimes find myself preferring to clean the floors or something akin to that, rather than paint. I’ve come to the conclusion that this is a necessary part of the process and speaks to the great resistance we put up when faced with that empty canvas.

I have developed some strategies for myself to overcome this resistance: I make sure that I have all my materials on hand all the time. I make sure I’m comfortable, have food, warmth, etc. I never start the day from scratch. I have several things in progress or at least planned, so when I wake up in the morning, I know where I’m going to head. I make it easy on myself by working in series so I don’t have to figure everything out every time.

Well, some of this I answered in the previous question, but I do think of my painting time as very precious and keep it close, meaning that I value it so much. When I’m really in it, it’s hard to get me to give it up. When it comes to doing the other tasks of my business, I try to move through them as thoroughly as possible, so I don’t get interrupted by them. A friend told me he liked to have something come across his desk only once and then he takes care of it. That has helped me a great deal. Also, being grateful for even the stressful stuff. Those are there for a reason too!

How do you generally arrive at ideas for your paintings?

For every work you have to start with some “thing", even an abstract! I often take photos, but then move as quickly as possible and as far as possible from any kind of reference. I want to make only a nod to the reference. I’m trying to make a painting, not copy a piece of reference. I do this by doing thumbnails and value studies and working directly from those rather than the photo or scene. I look at work that I admire and for some of my contemporary work like my animals and goddesses, I am responding to the process by starting and building on what happens. Very fun!

How do you keep art "fresh?" What techniques have helped you avoid burnout and keep your work vibrant and engaging?

I feel like painting is such a challenging and exciting endeavor that one can never completely “learn” about. I do mix it up by painting lots of subjects and with different materials. Most people are familiar with only a small piece of what I do, and that’s totally fine. I don’t do most of the work for any kind of recognition.